Managing Director
▪ Thomas E. Darden, Jr.
▪ Roy S. Roberts

Principal
▪ Qian W. Elmore

Thomas E. Darden, Jr.
Managing Director

Prior to co-founding Reliant, Thomas was a Managing Director at Wind Point Partners, a middle-market buyout firm and a Vice President at Advent International, a global private equity firm. Prior to his career in private equity, Thomas held various management and engineering positions at UltraCision Inc., GTech Corp., Surgilase (two-time member of Inc. Magazine's "List of 500 Fastest Growing Companies"), Borg Warner Corp., and the Detroit Diesel Allison Division of the General Motors Corp.

Thomas serves on the boards of directors of Saginaw Holdings, Inc., BlueSky Brands, Metal Spinners, Inc, Rhinotek Holdings, Rocore Holdings and Specialty Tools, Inc. He also serves on the boards of The Chicago Public Education Fund, National-Louis University, and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Business School.

Thomas received a B.S. degree in engineering from the General Motors Institute. He earned an MBA, cum laude, from Babson College and was awarded a Kauffman Fellowship graduating with the program's inaugural class.

Roy S. Roberts
Managing Director

Prior to co-founding Reliant, Roy was Group Vice President, North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing for General Motors. Roy also served General Motors as Vice President and General Manager for North America Vehicle Sales, Manufacturing Manager for Cadillac Motor Car Division, Vice President for GMC Truck Division, VP of Personnel and Development and Manufacturing Manager for the former Flint Automotive Division. In addition, he served as Vice President of Truck Operations at Navistar International. Prior to his 23-year career with General Motors, Roy spent 17 years with the Aerospace division of Lear-Siegler Corporation serving in a variety of positions in engineering, plant management, materials management, manufacturing, sales, personnel and labor relations.

Roy serves on the boards of directors of Saginaw Holdings, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Burlington Northern Sante Fe Pacific, the Aspen Institute, and the Boy Scouts of America. During his career he has also played leading roles in numerous social and civic organizations, heading NAACP organizations at the local level, and serving on the boards of the National Urban League and the United Negro College Fund.

Roy received a degree in Business Administration from Western Michigan University and completed the Executive Development Program at Harvard Business School and the General Motors Advanced International General Management Program in Switzerland.

Qian W. Elmore
Principal

Prior to joining Reliant, Qian was an Associate at Wind Point Partners, a middle-market buyout firm. Qian also served as a Senior Associate for McCown De Leeuw, a middle-market buyout firm. Qian began his career in finance as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Finance groups of Morgan Stanley.

Qian serves on the board of directors of BlueSky Brands, Metal Spinners and Rocore.

Qian received a B.A. in Finance, magna cum laude, from Morehouse College and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.